WE are next to treat of the rights and duties of perfons,

as they are members of fociety, and ftand in various relations to each other. These relations are either public or private and we will firft confider thofe that are public.

:

THE most univerfal public relation, by which men are connected together, is that of government; namely, as governors and governed, or, in other words, as magiftrates and people. Of magiftrates fome alfo are fupreme, in whom the fovereign power of the ftate refides; others are fubordinate, deriving all their authority from the supreme magistrate, accountable to him for their conduct, and acting in an inferior fecondary fphere.

In all tyrannical governments the fupreme magiftracy, or the right of both making and of enforcing the laws, is vested in one and the fame man, or one and the fame body of men; and wherever these two powers are united together, there can be no public liberty. The magistrate may enact tyrannical laws, and execute them in a tyrannical manner, fince he is poffeffed, in quality of dispenser of justice, with all the power legiflator thinks proper to give himself. But, where the legislative and executive authority are in distinct hands, the former will take care not to entrust the latter with fo large a power, as may tend to the fubverfion of it's own independence, and therewith of the liberty of the fubject. With us therefore in England this fupreme power is divided into

which he as

N 2

two

two branches; the one legislative, to wit, the parliament, confifting of king, lords, and commons; the other executive, confifting of the king alone. It will be the bufiness of this chapter to confider the British parliament; in which the legiflative power, and (of courfe) the fupreme and abfolute authority of the ftate, is vefted by our conftitution.

THE original or first inftitution of parliament is one of thofe matters which lie fo far hidden in the dark ages of antiquity, that the tracing of it out is a thing equally difficult and uncertain. The word, parliament, itself, (parlement or colloquium, as fome of our hiftorians tranflate it,) is comparatively of modern date; derived from the French, and fignifying an affembly that met and conferred together. It was first applied to general affemblies of the ftates under Louis VII. in France, about the middle of the twelfth century (1). But

a

a Mod. Un. Hift. xxii. 307. The in the preamble to the statute of Weftm. firit mention of it in our ftatut: law is 1. 3 Edw. I. A. D. 1272.

(1) The word parliamentum was not used in England till the reign of Hen. III. (Pryn. on 4 Inft. 2.) Sir Henry Spelman in his Gloffary, (voc. Parl.) fays, Johannes rex haud dicam parliamentum, nam hoc nomen non tum emicuit, fed communis concilii regni formam et coactionem perfpicuam dedit.

It was from the ufe of the word parliamentum that Prynne difcovered lord Coke's manufcript, Modus tenendi parliamentum tempore regis Edwardi, filii regis Etheldredi, &c. to be fpurious. Lord Coke fet a high value upon it, and has affured us, "that certain it is, "this modus was rehearfed and declared before the conqueror at the “conquest, and by him approved." (4 Inft. 12.) But for many reigns after this word was introduced, it was indifcriminately applied to a feffion and to the duration of the writ of fummons; we now confine it to the latter, viz. to the period between the meeting after the return of the writ of fummons and the diffolution. Etymology is not always frivolous pedantry; it fometimes may afford an useful comment upon the original fignification of a word. No inconfiderable pains have been bestowed by learned men in analy fing the word parliament; though the following fpecimens will ferve rather to amufe than to instruct: "The word parliament,” faith

one,

it is certain that, long before the introduction of the Norman language into England, all matters of importance were debated and fettled in the great councils of the realm. A practice, which feems to have been univerfal among the northern nations, particularly the Germans; and carried

De minoribus rebus principes consultant, de majoribus omnes.

Girm. c. 11.

Tac. de mor.

one," is compounded of parium lamentum; becaufe (as he thinks) "the peers of the realm did at thefe affemblies lament and complain each to the other of the enormities of the country, and "thereupon provided redrefs for the fame." (Lamb. Arch. 235.) Whitelocke in his notes (174.), declares, "that this derivation of "parliament is a fad etymology." Lord Coke and many others fay, that it is called parliament because every member of that "court should fincerely and difcreetly parler la ment, speak his mind "for the general good of the commonwealth." (Co. Litt. 110.) Mr. Lambard inform us, that "Lawrence Vallo mifliketh this "derivation." (Arch. 236.) And Lawrence Vallo is not fingular; for Mr. Barrington affures us, that "lord Coke's etymology of the "word parliament from speaking one's mind has been long ex"ploded. If one might prefume (adds he) to fubftitute another "in it's room after fo many gueffes by others, I fhould fuppofe "it was a compound of the two Celtic words parly and ment, or "mend. Both these words are to be found in Bullet's Celtic Die"tionary published at Befançon in 1754. 3d vol. fol. He renders "parly by the French infinitive parler; and we use the word in "England as a fubftantive, viz. parley; ment or mend is rendered "quantité, abondance. The word parliament therefore being re"folved into it's conftituent fyllables, may not improperly be faid "to fignify what the Indians of North America call a Great “Talk.” (Ant. Stat. 48.)-I shall leave it to the reader to determine which of thefe derivations is moft defcriptive of a parlia ment; and perhaps after fo much recondite learning it may appear prefumptuous in me to obferve, that parliament imported originally nothing more than a council or conference; and that ment in parliament has no more fignification than it has in impeachment, engagement, imprisonment, hereditament, and a thoufand others of the fame nature, though the civilians have adopted a fimilar. derivation, viz. teftament from teftari mentem. Tay. Civ. Law. 70.